Sixth year of blogging – Summary
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The blog has now reached its sixth year. It has been a long journey already!
This was the least active year on the blog, with only minor changes and little to no growth.
Despite not growing, the blog achieves its goal and is helping many people, at least from what readers tell me.
This article is a retrospective of this sixth year of blogging, and I share the numbers about this blog and what went well and what did not.
The Poor Swiss in numbers
We can start our retrospective of my sixth year of blogging with some numbers about the blog.
As usual, here are the page views for each month of this sixth year:
Interestingly, the traffic picked up significantly from last year. This is good because 2022 was considerably worse than 2021 and 2020. However, it is essential to note that the peak in June 2022 is due to a change in how stats were gathered. So, the increase is not as great as it looks.
If you wonder why this stopped on July 1st, it is because Google Analytics 3 stopped working that day. I tried migrating to GA4, but this tool is too bad. So, I migrated to Plausible Analytics, which is faster and better for privacy. But I lost all my data (my fault entirely), so the graph is not interesting to share for this year.
These days, I do not pay too much attention to these stats because they are not representative of the helpfulness of the blog. I am even considering dropping stats entirely since they are not meaningful. Let me know what you think.
Most of my traffic is from search, followed by direct (unknown sources) and then email. Other sources are bringing negligible sources of traffic.
The list’s number of email subscribers has increased significantly this year. This works well, and I hope everybody gets something out of the emails.
The comments are also doing well, reaching over 12000 comments, about 3000 more than last year. While it takes me a lot of time to answer everybody, I think it has substantial value for the blog.
The blog now counts 458 articles in English, 328 in French, and 319 in German. I have completed the translation of the blog in German this year. At this point, every new article comes in English, French, and German. While the translations are imperfect, people are generally positive about having the three languages.
For some comparison, you can read the summary of the previous year.
What went well?
We should first talk about what went well with The Poor Swiss.
The main goal of this blog is to help people in Switzerland with their finances. And given most interactions I get by email and comments, I think this goal is still fulfilled.
Overall, interactions with my audience are doing well, and I want to continue on that route. It is sometimes getting difficult to deal with the traffic of emails and comments, but I managed to keep up with it even though my response time was higher than before.
At the same time, I got a new logo for the blog. This logo is much more professional, and I like it. However, I know that some of you do not enjoy it. Let me know in the comments below what you think.
Surprisingly, the translation of the blog in German went well. The (bad) plugin I am using for translations, WPML, got an update that made translations easier. So, it was not so much agonizing pain as for the French translation. I still did not enjoy it, but I could do it faster.
I got two more contacts with the press this year. One article was published by Swiss Life. And I have another one that should be published soon. Again, it probably made very little difference for the blog, but it is an interesting way to improve communication, and they were both quite interesting.
What did not go well?
My main issue with the blog this year is balancing it with other projects. At some point, I invested too much time in it and almost got burned out. And at some other issues, I struggled to keep up with even basic maintenance tasks.
Next year, I need to find a better balance between the blog and my other priorities (family, work, and other projects).
During this sixth year, I did some little experiments to increase my presence on social media. However, it did not work at all. I did not raise my follower count or drive more traffic to the blog. So, in the end, since I did not enjoy that, I simply stopped my last social media account, Twitter. I want to focus on things I enjoy and bring value rather than on something like that.
One thing that I wish I could do is plan more updates of older articles. Some of them need a refresh. But I had little time this year for that.
Overall, I just wish I had more time and energy to dedicate to this blog.
What changed during this sixth year?
Quite a few things changed on the blog during this sixth, but they are barely visible to all readers.
As mentioned already, I translated everything into German as well. I think this closes a gap for the blog that was important.
I rewrote the blog’s theme almost entirely but kept the design the same. The HTML code of the blog was way too convoluted and contained too many elements that were not necessary. I refreshed it entirely. This makes it much easier to maintain and edit. And it should make it very slightly faster for you.
The home and blog pages look much better, with some significantly better-looking featured images. I am using a designer on Fiverr to do these. I have not yet finished all the old images but I am slowly working through them. I think it is a nice improvement.
I also migrated to a new server. The new one is slightly cheaper, more flexible, and convenient to run. It is not always faster, but most of the requests to the blog are not hitting the server, so it should be fine.
Finally, I switched from a sole proprietorship to a Limited Liability Company (LLC). I wanted to separate the blog from our finances. Another reason is that we want to keep some money in the blog where we will pay lower taxes than if we received the salary. It took longer than expected to make all the changes, but now everything is set up.
For 2023, many of the blog expenses and income will still be in our finances. But 2024 should be entirely on the LLC, hopefully.
So, many things changed under the scenes on the blog. I am glad that everything is done because it means that the foundation is better for any changes (if any) I make next year.
Most popular articles
We can see which were the most popular articles on the blog during this sixth year. This list may not be accurate since I have lost several months of analytics, but it should still be a good sample.
So, here are the five most viewed articles, in order:
- Updated Trinity Study
- Wise vs Revolut
- Online Shopping in Switzerland
- The Best Credit Card in Switzerland
- Best Phone Plan in Switzerland
I am glad the top spot is for my updated Trinity Study results. This is an article that I update at least once a year, and that requires a lot of work. I think it is an excellent article.
I will soon update the Trinity Study article again. And I plan to update other articles based on the same simulations. I now have another system to generate the graphs for these articles, making it easier to maintain.
The Wise vs Revolut article has been in top articles ever since it was written. I am not a massive fan of this article, but it brings a lot of traffic.
The following three articles discuss finding the best services to save money. My articles about saving money are very popular on this blog. It makes sense since people always like saving money.
The next year of blogging?
I expect nothing significant for the seventh year of blogging unless my time and energy increase. I will need to be careful about balance.
Last year, I was planning to write an ebook, but I do not think this will happen.
My goal for the seventh year is to keep everything running, write one article a week, and avoid articles becoming too outdated.
Your point of view?
This blog is for you! I want to get your point of view on this blog!
What do you think I should focus on next year?
What do you think went well or did not go well during the fourth year?
Do you have anything you would like to have on this blog? Any suggestions for articles?
Conclusion
I could spend less time than I would have wanted on the blog during this sixth year. However, the blog is still doing okay.
Overall, the main goal of this blog is to help people with their money. And I think the blog still meets that goal, based on the thousands of interactions with my readers.
While there was nothing entirely new on the blog this year, the foundation of the blog is now more solid. This will help if I need to make changes in the following years.
I currently have no projects lined up for the future. I mainly want to keep a good balance of time and energy for this blog. I want to keep the blog’s foundation strong and hopefully build a little on top of that.
What would you like to see happen during the blog’s seventh year?
What do you think of my blog? Do you like the direction it is going in?
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Hello and thanks!
My 2 cents: it is sometimes confusing on your blog what version of an article I am looking at. So I’d suggest two things:
– clearly give two dates: original publication date and update date
– Personally, I don’t think translations are needed, but if you want to do them, I’d give an indication which is the original post and which is the translation. At least for the German texts, they are sometimes a bit weird to read, which is probably down to AI translation. This can deter people who are looking for financial advice. An indicator showing them that they are reading an auto-translation would be helpful.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your suggestions!
The problem with the published date is that it’s often very old and people (and search engines) are detered from reading through the articles.
Good point about the translations. The English article is always the source. Feel free to let me know if something is bad on the German translations. I got a few proof reader people, but they don’t read everything. And there are some thing that are indeed not always great in the translations.
Dear Baptiste,
I would like to thank you for all the effort and work you are putting into this blog. I have been living in Switzerland as an EU expat for 4 months, and even before moving here your blog was my first goto place for financial information regarding Switzerland. You are really helping me and countless other people, and I can guarantee we are all very grateful. Before I used to live in the UK, where my goto place was the MoneySavingExpert blog, but I have to say that I like your more persona stile of writing more, as it feels closer to reality and less… wooden.
There are very few things I could suggest need improvement. The one thing, maybe, is a more intuitive indexing / category system for the blog. Case in point, let’s say I was to look at the pension system in Switzerland. Maybe I am doing it wrong, but atm I go to your main article and then click on links for further reading. For me it would be interesting that, at least for the main topics (Pensions, Banks, Utilities, etc) you would have a curated list, guiding the reader through the articles:
1. Start Here
2. Then go here
3. Then here
4. … (etc)
This is just a suggestion that would maybe make my life easier when going deep into a topic, but the current system also works well for me, and I don’t know of the extra work would be worth it – that only you can decise :-)
But overall, thank you again for the great work, and I only hope me, and the community, could repay you one day for all the good you have done for us! Best of luck in everything !
Thanks Andrei!
Currently, the flow for your use case would be something like this:
* Home page, click on Retirement.
* Then, go to retirement in Switzerland.
* And then you have a featured article that should be a good place to start.
But it may not be enough and not in all categories indeed. I will see whether I could curate this further!
I am always open to suggestions!
Hi Baptiste,
Also, from me a big Thank You! After discovering your blog last year, it became a regular and very enjoyable read for me.
My own approach to investment follows a semi-passive strategy where I adjust asset allocation once a year. But your articles certainly made me think about adopting even more passive alternatives. As a youngish father, I particularly liked your thoughts about childcare, taxes and housing costs. More articles about how to build intergenerational wealth and how to transfer knowledge to the next generation would be a nice addition. Swissquote has a new Children Investment Account you could review for example. In any case, please keep it up. Always happy seeing a new article online.
Ups, the new account type was from True Wealth not Swissquote.
Oh, then I knew about that one :)
Hi Joerg,
Thanks, I am glad you enjoy my articles :)
Great idea about teaching children. I hope to each my son about money, but I have no idea how I will do that. I will be sure to share my knowledge once acquired.
Thanks for mention the SQ account, I did not know about it.
Hello Baptiste,
Here is a follower from the e-mail list.
Congratulations on making it to the 6th year.
Have you ever thought about translating your blog to Brazilian Portuguese & Spanish?
Cheers.
Hi Lucas,
Thanks :)
Not really no. My blog is more tailored to Switzerland, so I would like to translate it only in the Swiss national languages.
I just want to say “THANK YOU”.
You are welcome :)
Thanks for your blog! I think it’s super helpful in general but especially when I was starting the FIRE journey. Now that I’m in the middle (been reading your blog and saving since 4 years now), I don’t binge as much on your content anymore… I think for me I need more deep dive content as I’ve got the basics now and so overviews or more superficial topics are not as interesting at this point.
I know it’s difficult as you are not in this phase yet but I would love to see more content on what to do when approaching retirement in Switzerland: how to change asset allocation then (specifically what to do with bonds), expected expenses then, case studies comparing living in neighboring countries versus retiring in Switzerland (can you retire earlier?), what are you planning to actually do in retirement (also perhaps some articles on helping people think and prepare for this life early retiree lifestyle)…
Something else I think you can perhaps already write about is how to know if early retirement is for you, how to balance this goal with others in life, as an inspiration you could write more on what drives you to pursue this goal, what other things you give up instead, what keeps you going etc.
I hope to see some of those in your blog eventually. Thanks again for everything! Cheers,
Hi Mikasa,
Thanks for your suggestions. These are excellent ideas. I have written some of these likes like how much you will spend in retirement, but a while ago. And it’s true that I have not written much about this subject recently. As you said, I am far from retirement. But I should try to cover these subjects more!
Again thank you for your great work.
Somo of my points are:
1. Have you ever thought about complementing this blog with a Youtube channel explaining all this staff?
I guess yes but just in case.
2. Have you incorporated in Switzerland with a GmbH, or in US with an LLC? For me LLC refers mainly to US.
3. It would be good to have detailed information on how is treated legally and taxed in Switzerland a swiss resident who is owner or director of a US LLC or a UK Ltd. For instance the US LLC is a “pass through” entity which is treated as a “swiss partnership” or as a “GmbH” depending on: how is treated by IRS in the US, if the LLC has economic substance in the US, etc…
In Switzerland depends as well on the Canton of residence.
As said congratulations for your great work and I hope we can see you in Youtube sometime.
KR
J
Hi Jose,
1) Yes, I thought about it but it’s a ton of work and I don’t think I would be able to make it appealing honestly. Youtube videos have to be special in order to be viewed. At some point, it may happen, but i would need to have a ton more time than I have now.
2) I have a Gmbh which translates to LLC in English. The company is actually a Sàrl because it’s in French.
3) That’s a good question, but I think that’s fairly out of my are of expertise since this would require knowledge of how US LLCs work regarding taxes.
Congrats! As someone who has only relocated to Switzerland this year your blog has been invaluable! The kind of sanity check I’ve always wanted after doing my own research :)
Would love to hear your opinion on having multiple 3a pillar accounts, something that UBS even advocate for: https://www.ubs.com/ch/en/private/pension/information/magazine/2017/how-many-accounts-would-make-sense.html
Cheers!
Thanks, I am glad this was helpful :)
Having 5 3a is a great optimization. I talk about this here https://thepoorswiss.com/third-pillar-retirement-switzerland/#8-optimize-your-third-pillar
But I plan to talk more about that soon!
Big congrats Mr poorswiss, you can be really proud of the community you’ve built and the thousands of people (including myself) that are being helped by your content. Keep up the great work!
Personally I really like the navigation you’ve added in the shape of “categories” to help navigate all existing content from the blog. One suggestion would be to have this not only on the homepage but on subpages as well. It would be nice if people land on your blog through a piece of content to be able to see the richness of other content available.
Hi Huybster,
Thank s :) I am glad my content is helpful!
I am glad you like the categories navigation, this was a lot of work, but very valuable! Not sure I get what you mean by supbage? An article or a category page?
* This? https://thepoorswiss.com/best-swiss-bank/
* Or that? https://thepoorswiss.com/manage-your-money/
I have two levels of categories, which should be enough even though some categories are over represented.
hi mrpoorswiss,
in the top corner where you have “toolbox, blog, resources, about” links, I would add an additional one with “Browse content” or “search blog” or something similar, which basically leads to your homepage with the first level of navigation. I know clicking on your logo gives the same result, but I am not sure if that is very intuitive at the moment. Might be worth having the same link at the bottom of your articles as well. I know you have the 3 recommended articles, but might be good to offer people the option to explore all your content through the first level navigation.
all the best
Hi Huybster,
Excellent suggestion! I have not revisited the top bar in a long time, I should try to improve it. The main issue is that I try to make it fit on mobile, so I am limited on the number of items. Search is already here, but no link to home page or categories.
And great point about making something in the footer, this could be improved as well :)
Thanks for the suggestions!
Thanks for your great work, I love how your blog became a reference both for personal finances basics and advanced topics in Switzerland.
I’m a bit surprised by the most viewed articles as in my opinion they are not the ones bringing the most valuable knowledge, but perhaps because they tackle topics that everyone can relate with.
I’d love to see more detail explanations of Switzerland-specific financial topics, although I don’t really have any in mind right now. More general topics have been addressed by hundreds of international bloggers already, while very few exist only for Switzerland. In particular, I love the articles regarding our retirement system (3a comparisons, scam of 3a insurances, 2nd pillar contributions), those about real estate (buying vs renting), those about investing from here (IBKR and taxes, all the US forms for dividends, etc). This is what I’d love seeing more. Any complex local topic for which people swiss residents would benefit from having a higher education, more detailed understanding.
Thanks for your kind words, Tim.
I agree with your point of view on the most viewed articles. They can tailor to everyone, so they have a wider audience.
Thanks, it’s a great idea. I also think that there is a lot of value digging deep into these topics for my audience. I will look into doing more of these articles!